Short Unrelated One Shots
by QuietRose-13
Summary: Chapter 3: Memories of the past have come to light... broken almost beyond repair, Allen begins to remember everything... Fall... trust in me, and you'll never be lost again. (Basically AllenXNeah. Whether Allen is male or female is really up to you). T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: So...I wrote this a while ago. I've had it on my computer for a while so I don't really remember where I got the idea, but I liked it and figured 'Why not post?'. I have a couple more of these, just as random but similar enough that I might as well post them all together. They'll be up after I get a chance to look over and edit them. Anyways, hope you enjoy!**

There was darkness, thick and suffocating, pressing in from all sides. It felt like sludge was filling his lungs, and yet he still somehow managed to breathe through it all…

_But it hurt…._

God did it hurt, and he wanted nothing more than to escape the seemingly endless barrage of pain. The more he struggled against the darkness, the harder it squeezed. He fought against the air being pulled into his lungs, and yet he was still breathing. His heart was beating, _his heart was beating_.

He was pulled along with the current, being dragged to the surface against his will. The darkness gave way to light, and against all odds, Allen Walker opened his eyes.

There was a brief moment where there was literally nothing going through his head. Like a blank slate, a stark whiteness that was almost overwhelming. Then everything came rushing back, and there was just _too _much. Faces and names flashed by, voices-screaming, crying, laughing, and smiling- all combined into a senseless melody of white noise. The air seemed all too sweet as it filled his lungs, and the light was almost blinding.

_I'm… I'm… alive?_

His muscles screamed as pushed himself up, his attention going straight to the overwhelming emptiness that had once been his left arm. He would have panicked right then and there, had a familiar voice not tickled the back of his mind. He instead turned his attention to the rest of him, covered in bandages and aching absolutely everywhere. The sound of his heart beating was startlingly clear, the aches and sharp burning pain was impossible to ignore.

_Alive…_

Tears came unbidden to his eyes, glistening like stars as they cascaded down his face. He curled up into himself, pressing his face into his bandaged right arm.

_Why am I crying?_

_I'm alive… shouldn't I be… happy? Relieved?_

_No, no that's-_

_That's not why I'm crying._

He jerked up in realization, being careful not to stir the strange girl lying at his bedside. He swung his feet over the edge of the bed, ripping out the IV in his arm and lurching forward into the hall. He didn't know where he was going, could barely care at the moment.

Something was calling to him, luring him out of the room and into the maze he had awoken in. Tears still fell from his eyes as he recalled the death of a close friend, a brother, from what seemed like a life time ago.

It had been a life time ago, or at least, three and a half decades. Years that were lost to him, almost as if they had never existed, because for him they hadn't. There were the nineteen years he spent with Mana, Neah, Marian, and Bookman. Then there were the thirty five that just _didn't exist_ for him. And then, there was now. _This _lifetime. A life where there was only Allen Walker, sweet, kind, and selfless Allen walker. A boy of only sixteen, when he should have been well past his fortieth year.

He cried for the time he had lost, for the people he had left behind, who had left _him _behind. He cried in relief, relief that he remembered, relief that there was still a chance at putting an end to it all, _relief _because he had finally remembered his purpose.

Allen Walker wandered until his legs gave out on him, and when he was found by those who had saved him, he spoke without thinking too much of it. He allowed his instinct to rule his actions, played his role as he was meant to. It wasn't until he stepped into the Ark that he allowed his mask to fall, the mask of _Allen_, the mask of a boy who never truly existed, who was nothing but bits and pieces of a picture that had been torn and crumpled almost beyond recognition.

He took only a moment to mourn that loss of innocence, the naïve and unrealistic ideals that he had lived up to for so long. He embraced the truth, as painful and ugly as it was, he welcomed it with open arms.

Then, he just kept walking.


	2. Chapter 2

_Never stop, keep walking._

Those words were more of a cruel joke than the encouragement they were meant to be. They mocked him at every turn, cutting deeper and deeper each time they were said.

_Never stop, keep walking._

Those words haunted him as he traversed down a path of uncertainty. Driving him in a direction he wasn't sure he wanted to go. They tasted bittersweet as they passed his lips, each time growing heavier- until they were stuck in his throat making it hard for him to breathe.

_Never stop, keep walking._

Then, they took on yet another meaning as he learned of the existence of the Fourteenth. Those words having been meant for the being in his head, the _thing _he would become once he could no longer fight it. He could stop. He could finally let go and just _stop._ Then… why did it hurt to know those words weren't meant for him?

_Never stop, keep walking._

So despite it all, despite the pain and the pure torture of it all, he walked. He fought _it _every step of the way. He kept walking until there was nowhere left to go, running himself ragged in a search for a new purpose, something for him to strive for and hold onto when he needed it most. He walked. He _kept _walking.

He would keep going until he found his true purpose.

Or until the day he died.

**_Never stop, keep walking._**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: This was heavily inspired by a few posts I found on tumbr (wnq-writers and Words N Quotes are great sources of inspiration). Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the two posts this came from, and to be honest I'm a bit too tired to do a full on search. Just know some of this isn't mine (mostly everything that's in italics, past the first paragraph). Can be interpreted many different ways, but I did originally write this with a female Allen in mind. **

_Memories from the past _have come to light. Precious seconds, hours, years that had fled my mind. Locked away in a gilded cage, the key lost along with its keeper. Only time worked away at it, the hinges rusted and weak, the lock cracked and warped. Enough pressure in the right places- _lashes, bruises, and scars forming on the skin. A thief trying to pry the memories free, looking for treasure when there is nothing but heirlooms heavy with sentimental value. _The long nights filled with relentless interrogation, blood, and disgust. The cage rattled and clanged, the bars giving beneath the weight. Enough blood on the bars let pieces slip through, cracked and shattered bones chipping away at the lock. Then, as the blood runs dry and the bones reach a point past healing, the cage bursts, the lock clatters to the ground. Memories flood an unconscious mind. And I wake as an entirely different being from before.

In a toxic fog of pain, delusion, and desperation I fight for freedom. _Where did you go? I can't find you in this place, abandoned by God. _No distinction between the blood bubbling from my own skin, and the nectar dribbling from the broken body of a stranger. Shouts, screams of fear and anger blend into a senseless melody. My hands move unbidden. I am a stranger in my own head, watching someone else pilot my broken and bloody body.

_They will pay for hurting you. _A voice, clearly not my own, bouncing around in my own head. Feelings of rage and pure blood lust washed over me. They blended with my fear- _our fear, our grief, our pain- _and danced a broken waltz across _our _conscience. _We _wept tears of bitter regret and love lost to the cruelties of the world. A love now bound by the physical form, two souls sharing a vessel made for one. Our hearts broke in tandem,_ the vibrations resounding across the void. Heavy and weightless. Painful yet precious. _

A heavy shadow creeps in, dark and suffocating with promises of the end. _We _fight until our body no longer obeys and our strength slips away. A broken heap of flesh and bone. _Can you hear the wind? Singing from within the walls, traversing the realms of dream and reality to lull you to sleep. It's aching, it's lonely._

_A lullaby for you. For me._

_Fall…_

_Trust in me, and you'll never be lost again._


End file.
